Determining the Moisture Transfer Parameters for Regularly Shaped Products

Abstract

In this article, an experimental and theoretical investigation of drying of slab, cylinder and spherical products to study dimensionless moisture content distributions and their comparisons have been presented. The measurement of the moisture content distributions of slab, cylindrical and spherical potato slices during drying at various temperatures (e.g., 45 C, 50 C, 55 C and 60 C) and velocities (U=0.5 m/s, 1 m/s, 1.5 m/s and 2.0 m/s) have been determined in the experimental study. Two models are used to determine drying process parameters (e.g., drying coefficient and lag factor) and moisture transfer parameters (e.g., moisture diffusivity and moisture transfer coefficient), and to calculate the dimensionless moisture content distributions in the theoretical analysis. The calculated and experimental results are compared with one another. The calculated results were shown to be consistent with the results obtained experimentally.

Keywords: Convective drying, potato, drying parameters, moisture transfer, moisture distribution.